Heretofore, the task of handling ammunition for large caliber field artillery pieces, such as howitzers, has been highly labor intensive and time consuming. To reduce the number of military personnel required and to save time, automated handling equipment has been proposed for conveying large caliber ammunition into and out of magazine storage pursuant to rearming a weapons vehicle, such as a tank, and loading its cannon.
One approach to automating the handling of artillery ammunition is to provide an ammunition conveyor trained throughout the interior of a magazine. While the conveyor is in motion, ammunition rounds are handed off to the conveyor during uploading and are handed off from the conveyor during downloading. While the conveyor is stopped, the uploaded ammunition rounds remain in magazine storage positions on the conveyor. Uploading and downloading can thus be accomplished expeditiously in a highly automated manner. While mechanizing the handling and storage of large caliber ammunition utilizing a magazine conveyor is not particularly complex, this approach is not without complications. The conveyor should accommodate both projectiles and propellant canisters as separate ammunition units required by howitzers. The magazine conveyor must be capable of safety storing projectiles and propellant canisters during transport over rough terrain in resupply and weapons vehicles. Thus, provisions must be made to secure the positions of the projectiles and propellant canisters on the conveyor during conveyance and while stationary in magazine storage locations. Such provisions must be structurally robust to hold projectiles weighing in the neighborhood of one hundred pounds, must be adapted to different types and sizes of both projectiles and canisters, and also must not hinder uploading and downloading.